An unnatural scenery appeared before his eyes; one that seemed all too familiar yet unknown, slowly awaking a forgotten memory. In front of him were two figures, male and female standing together as if they were waiting for him. Approaching these two figures, he realized the world started turning more monotone. The more he got closer to them the slower the surrounding area moved - the people moving around him were getting slower, the trees whose leaves were waving started to slow down. Not just his surroundings but he too got slower as he got closer. As he slowly approached the two figures, their faces became more and more familiar. However before he could fully witness their appearance everything stopped and he suddenly woke up, sweating heavily.
Breathing rather heavily, he said, "Darn it! How many times have I had that dream by now? And yet I still can't finish it?"
"However, I think I remember the name of a town one of the people said. Roval, that was the name." he said, quickly getting up and searching his book shelves for a map.
"Ah found it. Now where was it?" searching frantically on the map of Magnolia.
"There it is. Hmm it's a bit far from Magna city but with the help of a Krika Bird Mount which I can get from Holdi I can reach there within 5 days. Now it's currently……… 4 Moro so if I prepare myself I can head out by 5." he said as he got up and started packing himself.
Having 2 dimension bags in his possession was a good thing for him as he managed to pack everything he needed in these 2 dimension bags along with one backpack where he kept the items which would be needed quickly. As such he finished packing up at 4.6 Moro and set out earlier than he expected.
As he went towards the city gates, seeing the busy streets all silent and the calm breeze made him think to himself," How I will miss this place. Even though I won't be away for long."
For the past 20 days he had the same dream every night. Although at first he found it annoying, he slowly understood that it was a link to his lost memories. As such after the 7th day, he tried his best to hear and see his surroundings so that he would come up with something, something that would explain his dream and when he finally heard and remembered something from the dream, he felt compelled, driven and motivated to set out for this little speck of information to understand and know.
Reaching the city gates, there were three guards on duty.
"Ah, Mr.Grimwald what are you doing here so early in the morning?" asked one of the guards
"Ahaha, this old dwarf has something he has to do outside the city you see." replied Mr.Grimwald.
"On a business trip?" asked the same guard.
"Aye you could say that."
"Well, have a safe trip. See you." he said as he opened the gates for Grimwald.
"Thank you." he replied as he left and started his journey, first towards the city of Holdi.
Meanwhile in the Tower of the Grand Magus,
"So he's finally left the city eh?" said the Grand Magus sitting on a chair while sipping tea with a bunch of dolls sitting around him each with their own tea cups.
Walking on the pathway created by the Council of Magic, he could not help but be amazed by the craftsmanship behind the monster repelling fence.
"It's a wonder these things, really amazing how they came up with this." as he stopped to inspect one of the wards which made up the fence.
"The material on the top is without a doubt an ether gem but the force it's radiating is strange. Although the base looks thin it actually contains a mechanism that enables the ether gem to keep fluctuating without exhaustion. Must be the work of a master craftsman." carefully observing the ward.
"Well, gotta hurry. It's been 50 years and this is the first time I've left the city so I can't help it."
While he was inspecting the ward, a sudden roar echoed through the Abzi forest.
"What was that?!" surprised by the sudden sound he looked around.
"This area should be the safest region of the forest. Hmm, guess the rumors are true." he thought to himself as he continued walking down the protected path.
40 minutes later, he finally exited the Abzi forest surrounding Magna city.
Pulling out a map from his backpack, he looked at it for the shortest route towards Holdi.
"Hmmm, crossing the river here would be the quickest route but the risk is too high, so…… found it, if I go this way and cross the Webbed Forest then I can reach it quicker than the other routes." said Grimwald. "But first, let me properly equip myself." he said as he pulled out a blackrock shovel from his backpack along with Snowbear full body armor. "This will protect me from their bites and this shovel will help me kill those bloody spiders."
The Webbed Forest, like it's name suggests, is a forest swarming with spiders of different types. As long as one does not have fear of spiders or encounters the Spider Queen, it was a path anyone above tier 4 could pass through. That is if they know how to use fire magic or are in possession of multiple torches to burn away the webs covering various parts of the forest. Of course there are times when people get unlucky and destroy a spider nest resulting in hundreds of small spiders, slowly eating away at their flesh.
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It didn't take long for him to reach the entrance of the Webbed Forest which was made clear by the visible webs. Before entering the forest, he prayed "Let's just hope I don't encounter the Spider Queen."
While some might think that crossing the river is a better choice, people tend to forget that the river is home to a family of Liskers, four legged creatures with a long neck and tough skin resembling a snake; a rank A monster with powerful water magic. And yes, Grimwald didn't know of this so he was lucky to have avoided the path.
"Well, luckily I ain't scared of spiders." he said, entering the forest with his sight upon multiple webs.
"Navigating through this is going to be harder than I thought. The webs are a real hindrance to my vision."
Making his way through the forest, burning any webs blocking him with Flame, an improved version of torch ranked tier 3; it didn't take long for him to encounter a spider.
In front of him was a Giant Spider, the most basic type. Immediately sensing someone in its presence, the Giant Spider used its webs to propel itself from the ground, finally seeing Grimwald.
"Hello there you eight legged creature." said Grimwald, casting Fireball towards the Giant Spider, grazing it.
"Phew….. I might not look like it but I'm actually a Valiant( a tier 5 class from one of the branches of the Warrior tree.)" He said as the spider pounced at him, which he immediately parried with his shovel.
The Giant Spider stopped for a moment before suddenly shooting web missiles towards its target.
Grimwald dodged all the missiles as he approached the Giant Spider and with one big swing he crushed the head of the Giant Spider, immediately killing it.
"That was a good warmup for what's to come." he said as he looked up and saw multiple Giant Spiders above him.
"Come down, don't be shy." said Grimwald, with a mocking grin and his left hand waving at them.
Immediately the Giant Spiders jumped down and surrounded him. Together they shot their web silks and made a web cage to trap Grimwald. However, Grimwald who was a vivid reader and visitor of the public library knew all about their tactics and immediately engulfed his shovel with aura and swung it with such force that it immediately killed most of the spiders who were busy building the web cage thus thwarting their plan of trapping him with their web cage. The remaining spiders rushed towards him but they all died before reaching him, since Grimwald's aura was one that could be turned into a rubber like state which he used to swing his shovel with.
(Giant Spiders are the weakest of the different types of spiders living in the Webbed Forest. They live by working in groups and using their web cage tactic to kill other spider types who are alone and eat them. The web cage is formed by multiple spiders, with a minimum of 10 surrounding their target and half of them start forming a web above their target while the other half protect them. This process takes a while and as such is the main weakness. Taking opportunity of the web formation to kill the guards with a wide area skill and going after the rest is the most common counter to it.)
"That tired me a bit, but I can't stay here. The scavengers will reach this place soon." walking away from the corpses and continuing on his way inside the forest. Just like he said the Red Butt Spiders soon arrived and started munching on the corpses of the Giant Spiders.
30 minutes later, Grimwald stopped to take a short rest.
"This place seems safe enough to stop for a moment. The Webbed Forest, from what I remember, the easiest way to get out of this place is by entering in the direction one would want to exit so that going straight would result in exiting at the right place. Now let's see." taking his map out again," So map reading isn't my thing but I think I'm right here, in the center. Wait a minute, shit!. I must leave this area." said Grimwald as he immediately folded his map and ran quickly.
"Shit shit shit, I forgot the center of this forest belongs to the Spider Queen." running quickly away from the center, burning webs on his path.
"Krrrrrr, someone has entered my domain. My children, food is here." screeched the Spider Queen as hundreds of spiders exited from her cave and ran towards Grimwald.
Finally leaving the center of the forest, he felt relieved.
"Phew, finally. Luckily it seems like she didn't notice my presence." he said. However before he could completely relieve his fatigue he realized something. The forest was eerily quiet as if everyone inside was hiding from a threat.
"Wait a minute, what's that sound?" hearing multiple sounds coming his direction, he gazed at it hoping to see what it was. When he finally saw what made those sounds, Grimwald screamed a manly cream and immediately ran as quick as he can forgetting how tired he was just now; as behind him were a swarm of spiders known as the Death Swarm, consisting of hundreds of baby spiders of the Queen Spider, eating whatever living being they find in their way.
"Damn it, it would've been much better if she personally came herself." said Grimwald.
Seeing how they got closer and closer to him, he decided to take two of his dimension bags and kept them in his pocket, along with his map and shovel and started throwing whatever it was he had put inside his backpack in hopes of slowing them down even for a short instance.
"Shit, if it comes down to this then might as well throw the entire bag." said Grimwald seeing how throwing little things didn't slow them.
"But first, let me activate this bomb which for whatever reason I packed inside."
Activating the bomb, he immediately threw the backpack.
"Fasten." casted Grimwald to speed himself up to avoid the explosion.
*BOOM* The bomb exploded, killing half of the swarm and the shockwave of the explosion throwing Grimwald off balance and hitting himself hard in the ground.
"Urgh….. arrgh. *Fooo fooo(taking deep breath noises) That was close. Luckily, only minor injuries and fatigue which will likely be worse tomorrow. At least I made it out safely. I pray for whoever enters the forest after me" said Grimwald, slowly picking himself up and walking towards a road below him.
Slowly following the road, he came upon a river and decided to stop there for a moment.
"Let me wash myself first." he said as he took off his equipment and washed off the dirt on his arms and legs. Also cleaning the dust on his fur armor.
"Luckily I stored some backup water in one of the dimension bags." taking it out and drinking it. He got up and started walking again towards Holdi.
A few minutes later, he finally arrived at the gates of Holdi.
"Finally, although unplanned, let me take a rest for the day and continue tomorrow. Didn't think I would get this tired."
Entering the city, he first entered an inn and registered himself for a day.
"So missy, there's a stable here where you can buy Krikia Bird Mounts right?" asked Grimwald.
"Ah, yes sir."
"Do you know how much it costs?"
"Around 500 mir."
"Well thank you missy." said Grimwald as he went up the stairs and entered his booked room.